Honest Thief

 

When it comes to action-packed films, there are not very many actors that can pull them off as well as Liam Neeson, except for maybe Mark Wahlberg. With films such as "Taken", "The Commuter", "The Grey", "Cold Pursuit", "Run All Night" and the like, it was certainly not difficult to realize that he would be effective in "Honest Thief".

They call him the In and Out Bandit because meticulous thief Tom Carter (Liam Neeson) has stolen $9 million from small-town banks while managing to keep his identity a secret. But after he falls in love with the bubbly Annie (Kate Walsh), Tom decides to make a fresh start by coming clean about his criminal past to Chief FBI Agent Sam Baker (Robert Patrick), only to be double-crossed by two ruthless FBI agents, Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos). Now, Tom must go on the lam to clear his name and bring them to justice.

Others to round out the cast are Jeffrey Donovan as Agent Meyers, Jose Guns Alves as bomb squad specialist, Lewis D. Wheeler as ER doctor, Osmani Rodriguez as short detective, Michael Malvesti as wired agent and Tazzie as Tazzie, Agent Meyers' dog. 

This was intensely directed by Mark Williams ("A Family Man" '16). Even though this filmmaker has no other directing experience to his resume--not even TV, his ability to create a gritty, tight story by extracting the most effective emotions to convey to his audience was amazingly well done. Most of his experience has been in the producing realm, so he certainly has hung around enough directors for some of that expertise to rub off. It was interestingly written by Steve Allrich ("The Canyon" '09, "Bad Karma" '12, "The Timber" '15) plus a short and Williams (TV), based on a story by Allrich and Williams. Even though there were a few twists in this, it was still a bit predictable in how it unfolded. It was a very similar premise which has been a common staple in Neeson's films: Neeson is a loner, meets or has a girlfriend. He has a past which leads him into danger and fears for the girlfriend's safety. He ends up conquering the bad guys, but first has to go through fights and explosions to save the day. What makes this palatable is that when you know this before entering the theater, it makes the premise more forgiving. Will this be nominated for any Oscars? No, but that's not why the audience is watching this. It's pure escapism at its finest. 

I feel that the main reason why we see films is to escape to a different place with different people so we can put our problems aside for a couple of hours. Well, I have to say, this film did that for me, and that speaks volumes. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                        Rated: PG-13                                            109mins.